Court orders Alex Jones to pay $473 million to families of Sandy Hook victims
Alex Jones has had a bizarre reaction to a court ordering him to pay USD $473 million (AUD $717m or £405m) to Sandy Hook victims’ families.
The Infowars host claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting was a hoax and he's since been sued for defamation in several cases.
Jones slammed the court’s decision.
According to Vice, he said: “I don’t want to say I'm having an orgasm right now...but it's a joke."
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Jones seemed to find the court order amusing because he said he has ‘hardly anything, except a giant audience of patriots and liberty and freedom. I’m super rich in that area', alluding to the idea he will never be able to pay that fine.
Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis ordered the conspiracy theorist to pay USD $473 million in punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
The decision was announced one month after Jones was ordered to pay USD$965 million (AUD$1.5 billion, £827 million) in damages to numerous families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting in a separate hearing.
Each plaintiff got millions of dollars in the payout, with one family member receiving more than USD$80 million (AUD$127 million, £72 million).
The Guardian reported that in a statement made by the plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Mattei, he said the ruling ‘serves to reinforce the message of this case: those who profit from lies targeting the innocent will face justice’.
Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers that the US government facilitated a fake shooting as a ploy to take away guns from Americans, as per BBC News.
He also accused the parents of the victims of being ‘crisis actors’ while believing that some never existed.
As the families have already won two civil trials against the radio host, they’re expected to take him to court again in Texas; however, the date has not yet been set.
But during an episode of Infowars, Jones begged his fans to donate to his website, with proceeds going towards Jones continuing to fight his case.
He added that the courts used his case to prevent others from exercising free speech.
He said: “They want to scare everyone away from freedom and scare us away from questioning Uvalde, and what really happened there or Parkland or any other event and guess what?
“We’re not scared, and we’re not going away, and we’re not going to stop.”
Topics: News
Charisa Bossinakis